Saturday, August 16, 2014

Daydream Believer--and a giveaway!

by Mary Kennedy

Most writers spend quite a bit of time daydreaming. (not that we have a corner on daydreaming, I bet you do it, too.) We can gaze at clouds...

or trees...

or the ocean...

for hours and never be bored. (I took the shot above from the place I escape to in Ft. Lauderdale. It was sheer serendipity that I found this oceanfront condo on a quiet stretch of beach. I was headed down to Key West to research a BoxCar Mystery set in the Keys and just needed a place to stay for one night in Ft. Lauderdale.) I've been to Ft. Lauderdale at least 50 times--you can never have too much of paradise.

Daydreaming (in spite of what you may have been told in grade school) can be a good thing. It's a time for the brain to recharge, to play with ideas and images, making new combinations and coming up with creative solutions.

Daydreaming is essential for writers...

we need to toss around ideas, think about our plots and characters and as one of writer pals puts it, "just our minds roll downstream."

So the next time someone accuses you of wasting time by "daydreaming," let them know that you're engaged in a highly creative activity. (Any anyway, who are they to judge you? Maybe they spend hours a day on Candy Crush!)

Just a reminder that the Sweet Dreams Kit giveaway is still on. We already have two happy winners, Jen Beard and Linda Chudej. They'll be receiving a signed copy of Nightmares Can Be Murder, a Navajo dreamcatcher, a box of tea, a tin of cookies, etc. If you've already entered, that's all good, please don't enter again, it will overwhelm the system. But if you haven't entered, just shoot an e-mail with you name and e-mail addy and DREAMS in the subject line to cozychicks@gmail.com You could be our next happy winner.